When is the Best Time to Buy a House to Flip?



New real estate investors have a lot of questions—and the biggest one is when is the best time to buy a property. With markets always changing, along with interest rates and housing prices, it’s not always clear when it’s the best time to get a good deal.

Rules of Renovation gets asked about the timing of buying new properties. If you’ve found a good price on a specific property, the short answer to the question is “yes!” Don’t wait around for the perfect moment; when you’ve found something good get going. If you’re doubting the right timing for purchasing an investment property, keep the following tips in mind:

1. There’s no such thing as the perfect time

Any real estate property purchase will always carry some risk, even in the best of times. The perfect, risk-free time to buy will never come along. So don’t sit around waiting for the market, interest rates, and a great price on the perfect property to magically align. If you’ve found a property with potential at a good price, don’t sit around and wait. Act on it! You can still get a return on your investment if you play your cards right during the renovation and selling process.

2. Consider your options

Remember that there is more than one way to make money off a property. You may have intended to flip the house, only to realize that the repairs are far more expensive than you budgeted for. Rather than holding onto it and waiting for a great market, you can turn around and sell it straight to a wholesaler or another flipper who may have a little more budget leeway.

Or maybe the market turns sour soon after your purchase or renovation. Instead of flipping, you might rent it out and make money, or at least cover the mortgage with monthly rent payments. When the time is right, you can prepare it to sell.

3. If the deal is right, the timing is right

Be picky about your properties. Set up criteria for what you’ll buy and how much of a rehab you can afford. You’ll find plenty of overpriced houses, you’ll get outbid in auction or you will come across properties that are too far gone or located in an undesirable neighborhood. In these cases, you’ll know it’s a hard pass. But when you find a property that is a good price and in a condition you can rehab and sell for a profit, then don’t wait around: the right time is when you find a good deal.

4. A good profit comes from a great buy

You may think that you make your money off a real estate property at the end of the process, after the rehab and the sale. But a key Rules of Renovation takeaway is the opposite: You actually make your money when you buy the property, not when you sell it. Your profit comes from finding a heavily discounted property you have the time, know-how, and funding to rehab. So again, when you find a great deal, go for it: if the price is right, you’ve already won.

The great thing about real estate investing is that really, there is no good or bad market to buy in—there are just good and bad deals. Instead of worrying about the timing of your purchase, focus your efforts on reading listings, contacting wholesalers, and attending auctions.

 When you find a good property, jump on it—focus on how fast you can get it renovated and back on the market, and if the selling market shifts, you do have options like renting or selling to another investor. Don’t be paralyzed by risk; instead look for great deals and jump when you find one.

Ready to make money renovating? Get more tips from the Rules of Renovation blog.

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